EcoVitality was founded in 1998 by Professor
Howard Latin after he spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar in South Africa. It is a non-profit
organization set up to preserve nature in remote
areas of developing nations where most of Earth's biodiversity is found. Professor
Latin's conservation approach has created economic-incentive programs to help persuade
people in poor remote regions that they can get what they want most,
greater economic and social welfare, by preserving nature in their areas rather
than by exploiting natural resources unsustainably.

EcoVitality is a small, all-volunteer group that
experimented with various projects including value-added wood products,
semi-precious stones, safaris and trekking
tours, aquarium fish sales, and other attempts to improve the revenues
and pride of people in poor remote areas while giving them a compelling reason to
protect their local resources. However, we could not raise sufficient funding
in the several years after the 9/11 tragedy to maintain our economic-incentive programs on a
lasting basis. As a result, EcoVitality has instead become an environmental
education enterprise.